After the Supreme Court dismisses the plea seeking to reschedule the date of budget on Monday, now all eyes are on Union Budget 2017 as alot sops are expected to woo the voters ahead of Assembly elections in five states.
This Union budget 2017 is the first budget after demonetisation, it is expected that government will announce measures to promote cashless transactions.
Union budget 2017 expectations. #Budget2017 pic.twitter.com/w4ssdhabpR
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Discounts on card payments, discounts for toll booth payments using cards, waiver of merchant discount rates when using debit cards at POS machines have already been implemented. Additional benefits to promote people to go cashless through credit cards, debit cards and mobile wallets, apps are expected to be part of the Union Budget 2017-18.
Benefits for banking through payment banks are also expected.
Post demonetisation farmers were not able to sell their rabi crops due to unavailability of new currency notes in sufficient numbers.
It is expected that farmers who were hit by note ban would get some benefits in the budget to compensate for the pain.
Measures to provide greater access to cashless transaction modes in rural areas and farmers are also expected. This will make the purchase of seeds, fertilizers, and other agricultural essentials easy.
This time budget will be announced one-month in advance, instead of the traditional practice of declaring it on last day of February.
The whole idea of advancing annual financial plan is to complete the spending and tax proposals before beginning of next fiscal.
It is expected that Arun Jaitley on February 1, 2017 may announce some upward revision in the income tax slabs to benefit the common tax payers in the country. The current income tax limit is Rs 2.5 lakh, and the government is expected to increase this limit to Rs 4 lakh.
Ahead of upcoming elections in seven major states, representing 25% of LokSabha seats, in all possibility, electoral management is expected to assume top priority in the forthcoming budget session.
The segments that have been most affected due to the ongoing demonetisation drive may find special attention in this budget.
